


Love in the Time of Self-Quarantine

by SapphicScholar



Series: Love in the Time of COVID-19 [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, academia au, covid au, quarantine au, the world's on fire but have some fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23142778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphicScholar/pseuds/SapphicScholar
Summary: One corner of Cat’s mouth twitched into a grin before she grew serious once more. “I’m grateful that you’re here, but I can’t take advantage of whatever our relationship—our friendship—is. You’ve watched the news. You know how sick people are getting.”“And knowing you, the first thing you did when you got home was shower. And then bleach the whole apartment.”A pause. “And?”“Your apartment is 100 times more sterile than literally anywhere else in National City. I don’t really foresee that changing. Unless you decide to lick my mouth, I’m pretty sure I’m safe.”
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant
Series: Love in the Time of COVID-19 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662787
Comments: 22
Kudos: 429





	Love in the Time of Self-Quarantine

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: It would help to have read part 1 of this series, but you don’t *need* to have (especially since it’s focused on another ship with just hints of supercat). If you didn’t here’s what you missed to have this make sense where it picks up: Cat’s one of the deans at NCU, and she got sent to Italy with some faculty members (including Alex, who’s been keeping Kara up-to-date) to court alumni donors for a new initiative. She was pretty pissed about it, and now she has to go quarantine herself for 14 days while Carter stays with his dad. 
> 
> Also, just to throw out the same note I left on part 1: This isn’t me making light of a global pandemic; it’s an attempt to salvage something creative out of the clusterfuck that is my university’s last-minute shift to distance learning and all the anxiety provoked by the news cycle

After dropping Alex and Maggie off at Alex’s apartment, Kara pulled out her phone and sent a message to Cat: “You okay? Want me to pick up groceries for you? Some movies to distract you while Carter’s gone?”

She was already at the grocery store—the fancy one with the organic produce she knew Cat preferred—before Cat’s response chimed.

 **Cat:** You don’t need to do that for me. I can have groceries delivered.

 **Kara:** C’mon, I just did it for Alex and Maggie. Let me help you. Aren’t we friends now?

Not that friends encapsulated everything Kara felt—had been feeling as they’d gotten closer and closer over the past few months—but it would do. 

**Cat:** You don’t need to expose yourself further. God knows I’ve picked up more germs than a kindergarten playground during this trip.

 **Kara:** Trust me, I’ve got an immune system you wouldn’t believe. Besides, I’ve already got a cart half full of groceries that I’ll never eat.

 **Kara:** Last chance: tell me what you want, or you’ll be eating nothing but super organic potstickers and donuts for weeks.

A few minutes later, a short list came through, and Kara grinned when she realized how many of the items she’d already picked out.

A moment later, a second text arrived: “You ate the last of the ice cream when Carter invited you over last week, so if you must…”

As if she didn’t already have three cartons.

\---

Kara knocked for the second time, tapping her foot impatiently and resisting the urge to lower her glasses to check on Cat.

Finally the door opened, just a crack. “Kara, you shouldn’t risk your health.”

“I’m not in any of the high-risk demographics. Come on, let me help take care of you.”

Cat’s eyes narrowed. “Are you calling me old enough to be high-risk?”

“No! Nope, definitely didn’t mean to imply that. But Carter would be pretty bummed out if he knew you were here lonely and bored and missing him. And I can at least help with two of those…” She didn’t mention how worried she was over the fact that Cat would probably spend the next two weeks an anxious ball of energy; she already hated germs, and the idea that she might come down with something that would keep her away from Carter for even longer…

“Fine, but you’re not staying.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Kara insisted as she shouldered her way through the door, lugging several bulging bags of groceries behind her.

“Kara,” Cat sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t owe me anything for doing what should have been done years ago?”

“You risked your job, Cat. You believed me.”

Cat tried to brush it off. “No one hated that walking lawsuit of a man more than I did. It was no burden to me to make sure the press finally got wind of it.”

It wasn’t even half of what she’d done, but Kara figured it was as much of a concession as she’d get. “Wanna tell me where all these groceries go, or should I just start putting them wherever feels right?”

Cat glared, and Kara beamed. And just like that, things were almost back to normal. Or as back to normal as they could be during a pandemic.

“So,” Kara ventured as she ducked down to put away the extra bottle of olive oil she’d picked up (there were emergencies, and then there were emergencies when you couldn’t even make a good stress-relieving bowl of pasta, and she could only handle one kind), “have you had lunch yet? Or, I guess maybe we’re getting close to dinner now?”

Cat sighed. “I will as soon as you leave.”

“What was it you said to Carter about always being a good host?”

“I’m fairly certain I only need to be a good host to people I’ve actually invited into my home.”

Kara barely hid a grin as she spun around. “The ancient Greeks would disagree. I’d think a former English professor would know that.”

“Journalism,” Cat corrected, refusing to acknowledge that NCU’s journalism program was still housed under the English Department.

“Logistics. You’re in charge of all of them now, aren’t you?”

“Not you fine arts people.”

“You wouldn’t know what to do with us.” Kara could convince herself that she was just imagining the slight flush to Cat’s cheeks, but she definitely heard the way her breath hitched.

“I suppose you don’t need real leadership skills to supervise fingerpainting for non-majors.”

“Excuse you, that is a majors only course.”

One corner of Cat’s mouth twitched into a grin before she grew serious once more. “I’m grateful that you’re here, but I can’t take advantage of whatever our relationship—our friendship—is. You’ve watched the news. You know how sick people are getting.”

“And knowing you, the first thing you did when you got home was shower. And then bleach the whole apartment.”

A pause. “And?”

“Your apartment is 100 times more sterile than literally anywhere else in National City. I don’t really foresee that changing. Unless you decide to lick my mouth, I’m pretty sure I’m safe.”

“Well that would be incredibly unprofessional. And unhygienic.”

“So it’s settled. We’ll admit that I’m pretty safe here, and you’ll let me keep you company and help take care of errands and stuff for you. Then, in two weeks, Carter can come back home, and I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Please,” Cat scoffed, “you know Carter would have you over every night if he could.”

Kara bit her tongue to keep from asking Cat what she might like. Because if it were up to Kara, she’d be here and wrapped up in this little family as much as they’d let her. Instead she asked, “So what do you want to do today? We’ve got movies, or I could go get you soup, or—”

“You are aware I’m not sick, yes?”

“Well, yeah, I guess. But aren’t you supposed to be resting?”

“I have a job to do. I’ll rest for two glorious weeks over summer break.”

Kara sighed. She should have expected that Cat would be at least as frustrating to deal with as Alex when she was sick.

Eventually they managed to compromise: Cat would work on her computer while Kara ran home to get a few things, and come dinnertime, she’d finally put away her work and sit down to eat a real meal, and then maybe, if Kara played her cards right, they’d watch a movie together.

\---

By day three, they’d finally settled into a rhythm. Cat had stopped objecting to Kara’s presence once she realized that she would go stir-crazy if she couldn’t leave the apartment _and_ was stuck all alone in it for two weeks. Kara had learned to read the subtle differences between Cat’s bad moods—there was the kind of snappy she got when she was hungry; the genuine annoyance when she needed to work and Kara was bothering her; the melancholy kind of anger that descended when she thought about how long it had been since she’d seen Carter; and the casual peevishness when she actually _wanted_ to do whatever it was Kara was proposing but felt guilty about taking a break. The last kind was Kara’s favorite because it only took a little coaxing before Cat pretended like she was doing Kara a great favor by logging out of her work emails and joining her for a game of Scrabble or another horrid romantic comedy.

On day four, Kara went back to work, taking precautions to shower and put on clean clothes so there was no chance she was bringing any germs to her students who didn’t all enjoy the privilege of super-resistant alien immune systems. And when she went back to Cat’s—clad once more in a fresh set of clothes to avoid bringing Cat the flu that had been sweeping through her classes—she found the woman curled up on her couch, glasses perched on her nose as she glared at her screen, making _tsk_ ing sounds and typing furiously.

“That can’t be a good sign for whoever’s on the receiving end of that email,” Kara joked.

“Hmm?”

“I just…” Kara mimed the angry typing.

“Ah, yes. There are questions about whether we might shift classes online after the break.”

Kara nodded as she kicked off her shoes and came over to join Cat on the couch. “Alex mentioned that the new provost—”

“Interim. He’s certainly not earned his place yet.”

“Right. But that he was using them as test cases to see how it goes.”

“And somehow they think that a week of testing the system with the six professors they chose to expose to risk will be enough to say whether or not shifting an entire university online is feasible.” Kara could feel Cat building to a full-on rant and marveled at just how impressive she looked doing it. “Then they think that every professor will be able to learn a whole new style of teaching and revamp their classes in the single week we have for break. I was a damn good professor, and even I wouldn’t have been able to adapt well that fast, and that’s not even thinking about the ones who can barely figure out how to turn on the volume for a regular phone call, but sure, let’s have them download a brand new program for synchronous online classes!” Cat’s chest was heaving by the end of it, her cheeks flushed with anger, and Kara wanted nothing more than to press her back against the couch cushions and kiss her until she’d forgotten all about everything that was causing her stress.

Forcing her gaze to settle on the wall behind Cat—because, really, looking at any part of her seemed dangerous when Kara’s thoughts had reduced to little more than “gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous”—Kara asked. “Do you want me to find out how Alex and Maggie’s classes went today?”

“It’s fine. I’ll get their formal reports tomorrow night, and of course they’ll lie and tell me that everything is just fine, and we’ll all pretend like it would have mattered if they said that the whole thing was as much of a garbage fire as the _Daily Planet_ ’s coverage of the 2016 election.”

“So…no work talk, then?”

“I told Carter I would call him.” And it was said in the tone of voice that meant “leave me alone,” so Kara nodded and pulled out her laptop and gave Cat whatever space she needed.

Of course, the moment she was in her bedroom with Carter on the line, Cat’s voice softened, and Kara heard her heartbeat evening out as he chattered on about his day and his classes. She tried not to listen in, but at a certain point it had become a reflex—a way of checking in on the people that mattered most to her.

“What about you? How are you, Mom?” came Carter’s voice with just a hint of a crack to it these days.

“Oh you know me. Working, trying to keep the school running in my absence.”

“But what about _you_? Are you bored? Or lonely? I could always come home. They say it’s not so bad for kids, you know that.”

“I am _not_ going to risk your health, Carter.”

“I know,” he sighed. “But I’m allowed to be worried.”

Kara could just picture the expression on Cat’s face at that—the pride at hearing how mature her son had become; the wistfulness over realizing that he wasn’t the little boy that needed her for everything anymore.

“If it will make you feel better, I’ve had some…company to keep me entertained.”

“Wait, what?”

Cat sighed. “Kara has been spending some of her time here.” Understatement of the century. More like spending every minute not at work there.

“Mom!”

“Carter, not now.”

And Kara knew she should stop listening, tried desperately to find something else to listen to instead. There was the woman downstairs on the phone with the cable company—something about bad service. The couple across the street having—oh, no, no no, definitely not going to listen to that. The dog barking down on the sidewalk.

But then it was Carter’s voice again, filtering through her mental defenses. “C’mon, if that’s not proof that she like-likes you, then—”

Oh god. He knew. They both knew. They talked about it.

But then Cat was talking again. “Carter, life isn’t like one of those terrible movies Kara makes us watch. And it would be incredibly unprofessional for me to tell her—”

Kara jammed her headphones in her ears and turned the music up as loud as it would go, unwilling to hear something that Cat didn’t want her to hear. Even if there was a small part of her that was now pulsing with hope. But that wasn’t the kind of thing she could afford to indulge in—not now, not yet, maybe not ever.

Eventually Cat came out, holding her phone in front of her, a fond smile on her lips. “Carter would like to say hi.”

Kara took the phone and answered all of Carter’s questions about how his mom _really_ was, then answered all of his questions about how her classes were going and when she’d bring her paints over again for another impromptu lesson since all his school’s art teacher ever let them work on were still lifes of fruit baskets and empty wine bottles, and fine, yes, he understood why those were important skills, but the stuff Kara worked on was so much cooler. And Kara couldn’t really say no to him—not when it was his interest in her art that had finally gotten her an invitation to Cat’s home. Eventually Carter’s dad called for him, so he said his goodbyes and promised to call again in a day or two.

“Thank you for talking to him,” Cat said as she took the phone back.

“No burden, really. He’s such a great kid.”

“Obviously.” But not even the roll of Cat’s eyes could disguise the genuine smile tugging up the corners of her mouth.

\---

On day seven, disaster struck. Kara had been good—so good—about not dwelling on her attraction to Cat.

She really was happy to be friends with Cat—had been since the first time they met, both ducking into a back hallway at the new faculty welcome event to avoid the overly friendly provost as he made his rounds, his gaze overly familiar and his breath reeking of Cognac. They’d chatted away from the crowds for longer than was, perhaps, advisable at an event they were both supposed to be attending, and it wasn’t until the end of their conversation that Kara found out that Cat wasn’t a new hire—not even close—but was, in fact, one of the deans. At least she wasn’t Kara’s supervisor, since it was probably in bad form to develop a crush on one’s boss on day one.

And who wouldn’t develop a crush? Cat was sarcastic and brilliant and driven and protective in a way that almost no one got to see, even if they benefited from it. But friendship had been enough. Was still enough.

But after a full week of being cooped up at home and not allowed access to any of her favorite places, Cat had apparently decided to bring her workout home. Which Kara only found out about after swinging the door open and glimpsing Cat’s ass in tight spandex pants and promptly breaking a small chunk of the door off, the material crumbling beneath her grip.

“Hi,” she squeaked, not wanting to leer at Cat without her knowledge.

“These pilates videos are a terrible substitute for my trainer,” Cat grumbled as she reached for the remote and paused it.

And maybe they were terrible, but they were still clearly doing something right if the light sheen of sweat glistening on Cat’s skin was any indication.

“I…uh, sorry.”

“What do you do?”

“What?”

“You’re clearly in shape, but you don’t go to a gym.”

“Scarily good metabolism?”

Cat scowled.

“Um, I do some yoga at home. And some lifting.” Of cars.

“Walk me through your routine.”

“But you already look perfect,” Kara blurted out. Cat’s eyes flashed with…something, but it was gone before Kara could say for sure what it was. “I just mean, you know, whatever you’re doing is working.” She didn’t think that was better, but she suspected closing her mouth would do her more good than trying a third time.

“Be that as it may, there are only so many times I can watch this insufferable woman tell me to ‘try harder’ when you know they cut between every set for her.”

“Okay, uh, yeah, I’ll bring some of my stuff over next time I go home.” Which would be never. Probably. Unless she wanted to—

Cat’s voice broke her out of her spiraling thoughts. “I’ll clean this up and then shower. I wore a mask and prepped a few things for dinner if you want to get the oven on.”

Kara nodded, not trusting herself to speak when the domesticity of it all felt so very right. Instead, she busied herself with texting Alex about the campus gossip and trying to figure out what was going on in her love life. Of course Alex had to go and turn it around and start asking Kara about her own, which simply wouldn’t do.

Dinner. Turning on the oven. Basic tasks. Not thinking about Cat’s butt in yoga pants. Not thinking about Cat taking off the yoga pants. Not thinking about how good it had felt when Cat had fallen asleep curled into her side during their movie the night before.

Easier said than done.

\---

“Do you know the kinds of emails I’m having to send out?” Cat huffed when Kara came back from work on Monday. “‘As a reminder: clothing is not optional for classes held over video conferencing platforms.’ These are adults, Kara!”

“Oh Rao.”

“What?”

Kara shook her head. Clearly she had gotten a bit too comfortable here. “Has that been a widespread problem?”

“No, but one incident is one too many, don’t you think?”

Kara cringed. “Yeah…”

“What do you plan to do if we shift online? It’s looking more and more likely.”

“Oh, um, honestly? I don’t know. I guess I’ll meet with students individually by video? Talk through things they might work on, have them send me high-def photos of their work, try and give feedback based on what I can see.”

Cat hummed in acknowledgment. “I imagine this process will be easier for lecture classes.”

“Yeah, Alex has done better with that one. But I think she’s settling into a rhythm with her smaller classes. Not good, but, ya know, workable.”

“I suppose we can’t ask for perfection during a crisis.”

“I’m sure you’d have managed it.”

“Single mother with a son suddenly home from school? I doubt I’d have all the time in the world to invest.”

“True… You should see some of these professors on Twitter, talking about how much research they’re gonna get done during quarantine and totally ignoring everyone who’s got other responsibilities like kids and parents.”

“Self-awareness has never really been the defining feature of most academics.”

Kara laughed at that, and soon enough they managed to ease into lighter topics like what to have for dinner and what to do that evening. Cat vetoed another movie. She might be growing bored, but she wasn’t desperate enough to take more sappy romances (even if she and Kara had both cried a little bit during _Carol_ that weekend). Kara tried to distract her with all kinds of word games, but they tended to make Cat think of Carter, which made her morose, and that definitely wasn’t the mood Kara was going for. So instead, without really thinking about it, over dinner and wine Kara leaned across the table and asked in her most serious voice: “Would you rather have to get quarantined with Dirk Armstrong or Max Lord?”

“Do I get to bring a weapon?” Cat shot back.

Chuckling, Kara shook her head. “Nope, two weeks.”

“Ugh, I suppose Max. He’s an asshole, but at least sometimes he’s a charming one.”

Kara crinkled her nose in disgust but didn’t say anything. Everyone knew the rumors about the fling they’d had after Cat’s divorce.

“Alright, your turn. Here let’s make it more fun. Would you rather get to spend your quarantine with Superman or Batman?”

“Eww!”

Cat’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Not even Superman? I figured you’d go for the wholesome all-American thing, and that—”

“No! Nope, definitely not. Not my type. Neither of them.”

A smirk twisted up Cat’s lips. “Oh, I see. Well let’s try this one. Wonder Woman or Batwoman?”

“I—I, um,” Kara stammered. “I mean, they are both very impressive women. I’d be lucky to—I mean, uh, I guess Wonder Woman, since she’s a god and is probably immune to these kinds of weird human illnesses”—she was talking fast enough that she missed the momentary flash of recognition in Cat’s eyes—“whereas I might end up getting Batwoman sick, and that would be awful. I’d feel so guilty, you know!”

“So you’re planning on getting close enough to your quarantine buddy to get them sick?”

“I didn’t say that!” Kara squeaked, feeling like she finally understood what it would be like to be interviewed by Cat Grant.

But Cat just cackled, looking lighter than she had in days. “My, my, Professor Danvers.”

“I’m done with this game. It was a bad idea.”

“And here I thought we were finally having fun.” Still, Cat seemed to sense Kara’s unease. And as she cleared their dishes, she said with an air of affected casualness. “I’d have gone for Wonder Woman myself. Redheads remind me a bit too much of my ex-girlfriend.” And she pretended not to hear the clatter of Kara’s glass tipping over or the quiet muttered curses in a language that sounded nothing like the ones Cat knew as Kara mopped up the mess.

\---

The next night over dinner, Cat shot a Cheshire grin in Kara’s direction and asked, “Truth or dare?”

“Are we in middle school?” Kara retorted. She was pretty sure that’s when people played that game. She hadn’t exactly been popular enough to know.

“Oh, because ‘Would You Rather’ is such a more mature game?”

“Fine, dare.”

Cat looked stumped for a moment before suddenly grinning. “I dare you to call into Perry White’s tip line with some ridiculous lead for him to go chasing down.”

“Uh, okay. Any suggestions?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Just make sure to suggest that Lois Lane be the one assigned to the story. Something about her areas of expertise.”

It took until Kara was on the phone, the line ringing, before it sank in. “Wait! Is Lois your red-headed ex?”

“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell, dear.”

And somehow that led to a convoluted message that consisted mainly of Kara’s spluttering and a handful of words about UFOs to fulfill the terms of the dare.

“Not quite what I was going for, but I suppose it will have to do,” Cat sighed.

Grumbling under her breath, Kara pulled one of her knees up to her chest, hugging it close. “Fine. Your turn. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“I know that you didn’t really want me here at first, but are you having at least some fun during this quarantine?”

Cat’s eyes, so playful moments before, softened. “Kara, it wasn’t that I didn’t want you around. I didn’t want to risk giving you the kind of illness that is killing people. You understand that, right?”

“Yeah,” Kara sighed.

“But to answer your question, yes. I might even go so far as to say that I’m having more than just ‘some’ fun.”

And Kara knew she was giving Cat her dorkiest smile, but she couldn’t even care. “Awesome.”

“I have had some excellent company.”

“I, um, I’ve had fun too. Not that it really matters, but I just thought you should know.”

Over the course of the evening (and a bottle of wine), their conversation turned more philosophical, the pretense of truth or dare giving way to a night spent opening up to one another—their regrets, their triumphs, memories of childhood, talk of families, of wishes for the future, of losing loved ones and divorces and coming out and finding new families.

“Normally,” Cat whispered, “it would take a lot more than a few glasses of wine to have be this honest. But you…somehow you seem to bring it out. Like you’re the kind of person I should _want_ to tell these things to.”

“Most of my friends think I’m really happy just…all the time. And I am. Or I try to be. Because there’s so much good in this world.” Cat looked skeptical but motioned for Kara to continue. “I don’t feel like I have to plaster on that smile for you.”

“You still smile an awful lot.”

“Yeah, but with you they’re all genuine.”

Cat swallowed heavily, and the noise seemed to echo through the room, pounding in Kara’s ears.

Kara took a deep breath. It would be up to her to make the first move, she knew it. “I like who I get to be with you, Cat.”

Cat’s tongue flicked out as she wet her lips. “I like that person too,” she admitted. “I could have spent these two weeks panicking, but I knew I was safe with you.”

“I really want to kiss you. Tell me if I’m misreading things.”

There was a beat of silence, and Kara leaned forward, her eyes fluttering closed as she listened to the pounding of their hearts.

She could feel Cat’s breath, warm against skin.

But then there was a hand against her chest and a weak voice saying, “No.”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“Stop apologizing,” Cat snapped. “This Thursday is two weeks. Kiss me when we don’t have to worry.”

“What if I could promise you that you don’t have to worry now?” Alex might kill her, but it was fine. If she got to kiss Cat before she died, she’d be a happy woman.

“I’d remind you that they haven’t actually tested to find out if aliens can catch COVID.”

“I, uh, what?”

“You don’t have to say anything until you’re ready. But, darling, you took a chunk out of my front door last week, and this morning you were floating in your sleep.”

“Oh.”

“Two days. Surely we can wait two days. We’ve already made it through 12.”

Kara nodded, though she wasn’t exactly sure she could wait. Not now that she knew Cat wanted this as much as she did.

But, as it turned out, two torturous days of waiting and dancing around one another and casual touches that promised so much more made the first kiss that much better, bumping of noses be damned.

And by the time Cat had moved them to the sofa, settling herself in Kara’s lap as she brushed soft strands of hair out of her face, Kara had already forgotten those two days. All that mattered right then and there was the gorgeous woman in front of her and the future they might have together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on Twitter and Tumblr (sometimes) @sapphicscholar
> 
> Hope you enjoy and are staying safe!


End file.
